Josko Gvardiol

[Matt Diablo]

As i posted earlier Pep will play him primarily as a Left Back ALL DAY LONG. We are weak defensively i think massively down that side Zinners or not. Cancelo will battle with aging Kyle for rb and proberly seen more in midfield too.

Could be as big/ as important a signing as Erling

 

[richards30]

I`m getting far too invested in this move at the minute, gonna be a hard one to take if its all not true! lol

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

Don't see it happening

 

[Scottish Cityzen]

I thought Chelsea had already boxed this lad off, as he held talks with them in the summer?

It's brilliant forward-planning if we already know who is wanting out at the end of the season.

It would have a whiff of the Bellingham moves behind the scenes, should the report be true.

A serious upgrade for two positions and looks good in a mask!yu

M xx

 

[PrezIke]

Well, well...surprise surprise...

Seems logical that we are very much "in" for him.

Makes perfect sense as some here already were aware. This was my attempt to outline why here in early August:

Josko Gvardiol

Was great on my football manager save last year

forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk

My humble attempt to provide a summary of Gvardiol intended to demonstrate some key reasons he could readily fit into a sort of cyborg combination of Walker + Cancelo on the left as a hybrid LB/CB Pep desires from defenders and why we could very well be targeting him (and a key bonus reason mentioned at the end)...

- A Constant Threat in Attack
- A Forward-Thinking Presence in Defense
- Final Third Penetration: Exploiting the Opponent’s Defensive Line
- Defensive Style: Beautifully Old-School

...

Lastly, there may be another potentially hidden factor of signing Gvardiol for Pep.

Pep could very well see Gvardiol as an additional rotation calibre no. 6-8 along with LB/CB.

That would mean the bonus of adding a left footed, hard working, dynamic CB/LB/CDM/CM we may need very soon.

Why?

We are set to likely lose Gundo and Bernardo next summer and that would mean we could have to spend massively on 2 midfielders, whilst also considering KDB's age.

By adding Gvardiol to the squad one can see such a conversion bing plausible as Pep did with Lahm, Delph, Zinchenko improving depth to mitigate the potential loss of Bernardo, in particular as he both are left footed.

 

[eyalluvitt]

Coz we’ve got Gvardiola, we’ve got Gvardiola

 

[vin]

Based on this season it's Dias out first for me. Ruthless but all the other have outperformed him.

What I think will happen though is Laporte will go.

 

[WallyA]

A back 3 of Gvardiol-Dias-Walker would be extremely tough to get behind.

If we have sales... then perhaps it makes sense.

I also think it is an option to get Cancelo on the right if Gvardiol plays LB because currently we are forced to have Cancelo left and Walker right and ALWAYS tilt left to make the back 3.

Could have Gvardiol left and Cancelo right and tilt right now, perhaps also giving our young RB Rico Lewis a chance to go up and down that flank.

Kind of makes sense, to just say Ake and Gvardiol, your the leftbacks now, we always tilt right. For example:


Ake/Gvardiol
Dias/Stones/Akanji/Walker (2 of these)
Cancelo/Lewis ---> tilt right for back 3 of:

Ake/Gvardiol/Dias/Stones/Akanji/Walker


Even with Laporte gone, I think you probably need 1 more CB to leave, that's still 6 in 3 spots. I'd prefer not to lose 2 left-footed CBs (Laporte and Ake), I also rate Ake quite highly.

 

[Tangled up in blue.]

We won't sign him

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

We are fine with the defenders we have. We need a fullback and a CM to replace Gundogan. A cheap option would be Amrabat (can also cover in DM for Rodri or Philips) but ideally I would prefer Bellingham.

Personally, I think we have too many defenders, normally I would prefer if we get rid of 2 defenders but that might be too drastic nevertheless we need to get one out the door. Rodri was a great CB in the world cup, so that gives us another option at the back.

We are completely stacked in that department. We don't need more defenders.